SOUTH AFRICA: A month in Africa with 3 different safaris

[jpomazi]

Got to the bush pig blind at 6. At 6:59 there they are! Back to back successful nights. I hunted bush pig quite a few night in 2021 and never saw one so this is awesome. This is us celebrating our good fortune and laughing at our high jinx with the girls and the golden wildebeest.

 

[jpomazi]

Hunted klipspringer the next day. Saw a couple females and then a male and female together. We got back on them after an hour or so. Had the male bracketed between a tree and proceeded to miss the shot. I've hunted these guys for the last few years as well and this was the first male I have seen and he was a good one. What can I say. Easy shot just blew it. Picture of country we were hunting klipspringer in.

 

[jpomazi]

On our last day we decided to give the klipspringer a last try on a quick morning hunt. No luck. Packed up and on to our next adventure. We stopped at this taxidermy shop in Lephalale. It was pretty incredible the volume they do. That's a pretty famous kudu that's been on various internet sites. Over 70"

 

[USN]

Family hunt and memories for a life time, well done to everyone

 

[7mmFan]

great report and thanks for sharing! congratulations thus far!

 

[jpomazi]

The third and final stop is African Arrow Safaris. Most of my safaris have been at bow only areas and this outfitter has been on my list for a while. My goal is to visit all the top archery places in South Africa. My hunting partner Tim and his wife Karen met us on this portion of the trip.

 

[jpomazi]

I really didn't have a particular hit list for this hunt and was just kind of winging it as far as what we were after. I did want the twins to get kudu if possible and the wife wanted a giraffe. After going to that taxidermy shop she was excited as they make gun cases, bags and so forth from your hides.

 

[jpomazi]

On day 1 we saw some nice animals but nothing we wanted to drop the string on. They have very high quality animals and have no sliding scale pricing which I like and is rare anymore as most outfitters seem to have adopted that pricing structure.

 

[jpomazi]

On day 2 we had a couple zebra heading our way but just stayed out of range and circled the blind. Charlee ended up taking a nice gemsbok with the crossbow. Forgot to mention that Tim had zebra, sable, blue wildebeest and waterbuck on his list and shot a zebra on day one. So lucky!

 

[jpomazi]

The next day we sat a blind where we had some buffalo come in. Wind swirled and they didn't stick around but pretty cool to see. Also got a glimpse of some golden oryx. They weren't on the price list so I was surprised as this was actually my top animal on this trip but no-one previously had access to them. Mattie ended up taking a Nyala with a perfect shot and it died in sight. 10 minutes after that I got a shot at a black impala. He didn't go far either. I shot one in 2021 but the cape got ruined which was obviously very disappointing so I was glad to get the opportunity. Tim shot a beautiful sable on this day as well.

 

[jpomazi]

Barb ended up shooting her giraffe at 45 yards with the crossbow. She is very excited about making rifle cases and hand bags out of it. Tim got his wildebeest.

 

[jpomazi]

One evening we were sitting in a blind hoping for a kudu and a really nice Cape buffalo showed up. He owned the area as everything else gave him a wide birth. He just looked ornery! I shot one in 2019 with my bow and it definitely ranks very high in exciting hunts. One of the other PH's had spotted a nice kudu and when he came to get us that buffalo just stared at him. It was kind of eerie actually. He finally just walked off in disdain. I didn't like his attitude at all. Anyway we took off after the kudu and Charlee made a great shot with the crossbow.

 

[jpomazi]

That evening I was talking about that Cape buffalo as Barb wasn't with us in the blind that evening. Barb said you should shoot him if you see him again. I told her I wasn't set up for it. In 2019 it was my main focus. I built a specific arrow for buffalo and tipped it with a 250 grain Iron will buff head. I had plains game arrows for this trip. Equipped with an Iron will vented 125 head they only weighed 515 grains. About half of my buffalo arrow I designed. Tim's PH, Johan, said you could take one with his set up. The only difference was he had 125 Iron Will solids. I was skeptical about this. Barb kept trying to talk me into it. Can you believe I'm arguing with my wife not to shoot a buffalo? Along with being her birthday on this trip we were also celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary. She said her gift for me. Take the buffalo. I'm just shaking my head. Picture of my Buffalo arrows for the 2019 trip.

 

[jpomazi]

The next morning we head out to the same blind as last night as we had seen a nice kudu there before and hopefully we would see it again for Mattie. Barb stayed in again for the morning hunt. Guess who shows up? Yep Mr buffalo. Same attitude. He would stare at the blind and just burn a whole through it with his glare. We headed back for lunch and I asked Harry, the owner, if killing a buffalo was doable with this setup. He said yes. I borrowed a couple of Tim's broad heads and did 2 practice shots. They flew great. We headed out for the evening hunt just Barb, me and Bart our PH. A few hours went by and I'm thinking, well of course now that you have decided to shoot him he's not going to show. And then he does. I had told Bart I'm only taking a perfect shot. I want his near leg way forward and I'm going to put it right in that pocket. It took about 20 minutes of him walking around before he finally presented the shot I wanted. Even when it hit him I was apprehensive on what would happen. With a buffalo you are going through ribs, that's just how it is, so you need to still have some energy in that arrow to keep going after that initial busting of the rib. On the strike of the arrow it goes in deep. Probably all the way minus 6 inches or so. He runs off about 50 yards and stops. You can see his butt kind of sway back and forth and down he goes. He lets out the death bellow and it's over. Unbelievable! I've now shot 2 buffalo with 2 arrows. I'm very proud of that although I do believe there is a little bit of luck involved. It doesn't get any better then that as I know there are a lot of disbelievers out there who don't think you can get it done with an arrow. You can!

 

[jpomazi]

That night when we got back to the lodge Karen was nearby. I asked her if they had any luck tonight. She said yes, Tim had shot. I asked what? She said, I don't know you'd have to ask him. This was weird as Karen is not a hunter but had really gotten into this trip going to the blind everyday with Tim. She was getting to know all the animals and definitely the name of anything he shot. As it turns out the buffalo bug was contagious.

 

[jpomazi]

On day 8 we had some other hunters show up in camp. It was nice to have someone else to talk with and they were great people. Billy and Savanna. Billy makes his own bows

and all his arrows including using flints he finds for broad heads. If he looks familiar you may have seen him on the first season of Naked and Afraid. He lasted the whole 21 days and won.

 

[jpomazi]

Getting down to the end of the trip so we went looking for a kudu for Mattie. Mission accomplished.

 

[jpomazi]

Last day. Decided to give a shot at red lechwe walk and stalk. No luck. Sat a blind later hoping for golden oryx. Tim shot a nice waterbuck.

 

[jpomazi]

The END! A fantastic trip. Can't wait until next year.

 

[EXECUTIVE HUNT AFRICA]

Congratulations, what a great hunt!